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Dr. Miguel Velez-Reyes is the George W. Edwards Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Chair of the ECE Department at University of Texas at El Paso. He received his BSEE degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) in 1985, and his SMEE, and PhD from MIT in 1988 and 1992 respectively. He was a faculty member of the UPRM ECE Department from 1992 to 2012. He is the UTEP Campus Coordinator for the NOAA Center for Earth Systems Science and Remote Sensing Technology. He was the Founding Director of the UPRM Institute for Research in Integrative Systems and Engineering, and Associate Director of the NSF CenSSIS ERC. His research interests are in integrating physical models with data driven approaches for information extraction using remote or minimally intrusive sensing. He has over 160 publications. He is Fellow of SPIE and the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico. Received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers award from the US President in 1997. He chairs the SPIE Conference on Algorithms, Technologies and Applications for Multispectral, and Hyperspectral Imaging. He is the UTEP Campus Director for the Hispanic Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. Dr. Velez-Reyes is interested in improving educational opportunities for students from under-served and socioeconomically disadvantage communities.

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Dr. Fenot Aklog is the Director of Research at the National Center for Restructuring Education Schools and Teaching and the Evaluation Manager at the Center for Technology and School Change, at Teachers College Columbia University. She serves as the external evaluator for H-AGEP as well as for other NSF and USDOE funded initiatives. She received a B.A. from Brandeis University, an EdM in Administration Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University and an EdD in International and Comparative Education from Teachers College Columbia University.

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Dawn Horton earned her first doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University in Education. Her dissertation, The Genetic Epistemology of the Human Genome Field, expanded her mentor Dr. Howie Gruber’s cognitive case study methodology to consider how an entire field develops new knowledge. Her second doctorate, from Montclair State University, focused on the differential effectiveness of school counselors in the graduation of their assigned students. Dr. Horton’s research focuses on creativity and the development of new knowledge, systems to improve student outcomes in high school, and the college/career trajectory of students. She is currently employed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Dr. Mejia is the Director of The Hispanic Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate on Environmental Sciences and Engineering (H-AGEP). Dr. Mejia earned a Doctorate degree in Civil Engineering from the City University of New York (2008) Graduate Center, a Master in Civil Engineering with a focus on water resources at the City College of New York (2004), and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Medellin in Colombia (2001). Dr. Mejia worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology (NOAA-CREST) Center in collaboration with NOAA Scientists at the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS), 2008-2010. Dr. Mejia’s graduate and postdoctoral research focused on snowfall detection and estimation using satellite information. She presented her research work at many national and international conferences and also published it in several journals. Her passion for research and education lead her to take a position as the assistant director of the Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability (ESES) Graduate Initiative and the Alliance for Continuous Learning Environment for STEM (CILES) at the City College of New York (CCNY) where she also served as an outreach team member at the NOAA-CREST Center, 2010-2015. Since 2012, Dr. Mejia has also served as evaluator for the Greater Caribbean Regional Engineering Accreditation System (GCREAS). She has visited and evaluated over five engineering programs at different academic institutions in the Caribbean. Dr. Mejia has wide experience managing graduate and undergraduate programs in engineering and sciences fields. Over ten years, Dr. Mejia gained extensive experience in working in the academic environment at a higher education institution working with students, faculty, and administrators at different levels. She is also an educational consultant to provide support to national and international higher education institutions to improve student learning, enhance curricula, provide teaching and academic support, expand student professional opportunities, provide professional development to faculty, and increase the source of resources available to the institutions.

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Dr. Ivonne Santiago is a Clinical Professor of the Civil Engineering (CE) Department at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Dr. Santiago has a combined experience of over 20 years in the areas of water quality, water treatment and wastewater treatment in Puerto Rico (PR), New Mexico and Texas. Dr. Santiago is passionate about providing experiential learning opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students locally, regionally and internationally with a focus on Hispanic and female students. She is currently Co-PI of UTEP’s NSF-AGEP program focusing on fostering Hispanic doctoral students for academic careers; the Department of Education’s (DoE) STEMGROW Program and DoE’s Program YES SHE CAN. With support from the Center for Faculty Leadership and Development, she leads a Learning Community for Diversity and Inclusion for Innovation at UTEP. She is also a member of two advisory committees to UTEP’s President: The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and is chair of the Women’s Advisory Council. She is a member at large of the UTEP Council of Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She is secretary-treasurer for the Public Service Board, which manages El Paso Water. She was a member of the Environmental Protection Agency National Advisory Committee (NAC), that advises the Administrator of the EPA on environmental policy issues related to the implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. Also, she was a member of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board (GNEB) that advises the President and Congress of the United States on good neighbor practices along the U.S./Mexico border. She has received local and state teaching awards: 2014 UTEP’s CETaL Giraffe Award (for sticking her neck out); 2014 College of Engineering Instruction Award; 2014 The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award; and the 2012 NCEES Award for students’ design of a Fire Station. She also received 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers’ Texas Section “Service to the People” award, and 2019 El Paso Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. This is the first time in more than 30 years that a UTEP faculty wins this prestigious award.

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Prof. González is the Director of The Hispanic Alliance for the Graduate Education and the Professoriate on Environmental Sciences and Engineering (H-AGEP), of The CUNY Initiative to Promote Academic Success in STEM (CiPASS), lead scientist of the Coastal-Urban Environmental Research Group (CUERG), The City College of New York Presidential Professor, and the NOAA CREST Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the City College of New York. Prof. González earned his Doctorate (1994) and Bachelor (1988) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, respectively. He joined The City College of New York faculty in 2008 after tenures at Santa Clara University, California, as Professor and David Packard Scholar, and as Chairman and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. He teaches and conducts research in urban energy sustainability, urban weather and climate, urban remote sensing, and regional climate modeling and analysis. Professor González holds several patents in solar energy equipment, aerosol detection, and energy forecasting for buildings, and was recognized as a prominent young researcher by the National Science Foundation with a prestigious CAREER Award. He has authored or co-authored more than 10 peer-reviewed publications, has delivered 100s of conference presentations, and his research has attracted more than $30M in external funding. He is a Fellow Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), and Vice-Chairman of the American Meteorological Society Board on the Urban Environment. He was appointed in 2015 by the Mayor of the City as Member of the Climate Change Panel for the City of New York, and more recently as Senior Visiting Scientist of the Beijing Institute of Urban Meteorology and of Brookhaven National Laboratory. He was named in 2019 the Founding Editor of the newest ASME Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities.

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Dr. Jeff Sivils is an assistant professor of biology at El Paso Community College (EPCC). Dr. Sivils is currently the EPCC National Science Foundation Principal Investigator for the Hispanic Alliance Graduate Education and the Professoriate (HAGEP) grant in Environmental Sciences and Engineering. The HAGEP grant promotes the expansion of Hispanic doctoral students to faculty at community colleges or teaching intensive universities. Dr. Sivils received his B.S. in microbiology from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), worked in the biotechnology field before returning to UTEP to receive his Doctorate in Toxicology, where he studied the compensatory mechanism resulting from the loss of the multi-drug resistance transporters 1 (MRP1). He attained a Post Doctoral position at UTEP where he collaborated in the discovery and development of small molecules used for the treatment of prostate cancer.

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Dr. Harry Meeuwsen’s PhD training at LSU-Baton Rouge was in motor learning and control, followed by a Post-doc in motor control at UW-Madison where he worked on NIH grants focusing on lower limb control in older adults and fine motor control in Parkinson’s patients. During his training he employed methods and instrumentation typically used in biomechanics and motor learning. The theoretical foundations for his research were largely in cognitive psychology and neuroanatomy, with practical application in motor control. He conducted research in perception-action issues in older adults and in recent years, as a result of leading the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas at El Paso, he has investigated the implementation of Team-Based-Learning in undergraduate education and led faculty development efforts in teaching and learning. Currently he is engaged in training Ph.D. candidates in the College of Engineering in teaching and learning of through the NSF-sponsored H-AGEP grant while chairing the Department of Kinesiology and serving as the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in the College of Health Sciences.

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Fred Moshary is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY) and on the Doctoral Faculty of Earth and Environmental Science at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He received his PhD from Columbia University in Applied Physics in 1989 and was a postdoctoral research associate at the Harvard University Physics Department before joining CCNY in 1992. His initial research work was in the area of nonlinear optics and spectroscopy and subsequently evolved towards optical sensing where for the last 20 years, he has focused on sensors, sensor networks, and remote sensing techniques, technologies, and application. He is currently working on active and passive remote sensing of the atmosphere and coastal ocean waters with applications toatmospheric dynamics, air quality, ocean color (water quality), and climate change. He leads CCNY’s Optical Remote Sensing Laboratory, and is the Science Lead Coordinator for the NOAA Cooperative Center for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing Technology, a NOAA funded university consortium led by CCNY which focuses on experiential training and workforce development at Undergraduate and graduate levels.

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Dr. Joseph Barba is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York. He received his BEE and MEE from the City College of New York and his PhD from the City University of New York. His research interests focus on the development of image and signal processing algorithms for biomedical applications. These include image segmentation, contour extraction, and quantitative measure of image shape, color and texture for use in classification of cell images in pathology. He served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Engineering from 1997-200 and Deputy Provost at CCNY from 2000-2004. He was the founding dean of the Grove School at CCNY and served in this capacity till 2013. He currently serves as Director of the CCNY STEM Institute and serves as PI or Co-PI on several grants focusing on retention and workforce development of underrepresented students in STEM. He has served as the faculty advisor to the Latin American Engineering Student Association - Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (LAESA-SHPE) since 1983.

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